Former OU wrestler Tommy Evans was Superman on the mat

Following completion of preflight orientation at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, my basic flight training bases included Spence Air Base, Georgia; Williams AFB, Arizona; and graduation/winging at Laughlin AFB, Texas.

Having no desire to become a career officer, I declined advanced crew training with its additional service commitment and headed off to F. E. Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming for supply officer training. Upon graduation in August 1956, I was briefly assigned in the Supply squadron with the SAC U-2 program, 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Turner AFB, Georgia.

By late November I ended up at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana as supply officer for a SAC KC-97 tanker squadron. Cockpit-wise, I was assigned to "Base Flight" Rated Position Identifier (RPI) RIP-8. Our mission was to fly VIPs around the country in converted B-25 Mitchell bombers.

As my three year separation date approached in 1958, I began to realize the Air Force was a really good 1ife ...and with a series of events too boring to discuss here, signed the commissioned officer’s "indefinite" contract. It had a one year Gentlemen's clause, assigning me as the Base Forestry Officer for Barksda1e AFB, LA; 19,600 acres of World War II gunnery and bombing range. It was the fruition of my college Forestry-major, along with the exciting life of a gallant Air Force pilot.

I married Joan (Née Pucinelli) an Air Force Nurse, in the Barksdale AFB main chapel on January 28, 1961.

The Soviet’s first satellite "Sputnik" (launched in 1957) had changed SAC’s and my priorities, so in June 1961 I began a tour with the Air Force Institute of Technology at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. This led to a B.S. in Industrial Engineering in March 1964.

I then received a directed-duty assignment to Kadena AB, Okinawa in base Civil Engineering. A year later, with the Vietnam effort building up, I was reassigned to the command post of the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing and checked out in their T-39A North American Sabreliner. Many of our missions were in support of 18th TFW F-105D/F Thunderchief fighter squadrons, already fighting from Korat and Takhli RTAFB Thailand, flying strike missions in both North and South Vietnam.

My aircraft maintenance assignment at Randolph AFB, Texas in 1967 was pivotal. The major challenges which came to a head were: (1) devotion to my wife Joan, who became ill with severe Multiple Sclerosis; (2) the need for flying time; (3) flying functional check flights in T-38 Talon and T-39 Sabreliner in support of the 3510^th FTW undergraduate pilot training mission (4) and the work schedule left no time to spare. Still, I was given the additional duty as 3510^th Organizational Maintenance Squadron (OMS) Commander. This duty gave me great respect for our senior NCOs and a keen insight into the values of our young Airmen. Weekends were usually taken up on cross-country instrument-navigation proficiency flights. We worked hard; played hard and partied (to the acceptable standards of the time) ...many careers were made (and a few were broken) at the legendary "Auger Inn" in the basement of Bldg 500, the O-Club at Randolph AFB. Truth is the best people I ever met in the Air Force converged at Randolph AFB in the late l960s.

In September 1970, I applied for and received a humanitarian assignment in Maintenance Quality Assurance and Flight Test section at Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany (Joan was residing at a German Clinic, treating her MS disease). Initially it was rough going, as USAFE procedures were unlike anywhere else in the Air Force and I was working for officers who had long ago retired-on-active-duty. Lady Luck again came my way and I was selected to a newly formed CINC USAFE-directed Maintenance Standardization and Evaluation Team (MSET). This team of nine officers and 35 top NCOs evaluated USAFE operations throughout the theatre, and provided wing, NAF, and MAJCOM commander’s with their out-brief findings.

These new responsibilities and the situation at home lead to my last flight in October 1973. My AF Form 5 Flight log recorded 3,300-plus hours of flying time.

Later as MSET Team Chief, I experienced high level 'tough love' priorities first hand. This exposure and experience lead to a 1975 command assignment for NATO’s 345 Air Munitions Company [Special Weapons Storage] a 120-man remote assignment at Araxos Air Base, Greece. Although we were under logistical support from USAFE, mission-wise our OPCON was directly under the control of Supreme Allied Headquarters (SHAPE). This was my most challenging and rewarding assignment.

It was back to the States in 1976 for a two-year hitch with the USAF Inspector General at Norton AFB, California. From there in 1978, I was assigned to Quality Assurance at the McCel1en Air Logistics Center in Sacramento, California. I also performed various duties at the Center as a trouble-shooter, IG, Chief of EEOC and Environmental watchdog. The latter experience has made me a life-long adversary of tree-huggers. While assigned in California, my wife Joan was called to Heaven in 1983. I then retired from the Air Force in the rank of Colonel during 1985.

Yes, a three year flying commitment was parlayed into a thirty year Air Force career ...no plan, no regrets; lots of lessons learned (mostly too late) but I am secure in the belief that I played-the-cards dealt to me, honorably.

I retired to south-central Texas in 1985 to be with friends in the greater Randolph AFB area.

Shortly thereafter, Nancy Kutzner, an Air Force Flight Nurse, was assigned locally and we became 'Significant Others'.

Prostate cancer came along in 2000. Although still eligible for surgery or radiation, I opted for intermittent hormone therapy.

Nancy and I were married on February 8, 2008, with a blessing of our wedding vows in Chapel #1 at Randolph AFB on May 9, 2008. A wedding reception followed in the Randolph Room at the Randolph O-Club. Nancy was radiant [Charles was a handsome groom!]　

I’ve enjoyed a good life, puttering around with rental properties, traveling, and spending my summers doing lots of fishing in the fertile seas of Alaska.

Godspeed to my fellow UPT 56-M classmates and to their loved ones.

Thomas B. Redinger

Thomas B. Redinger, aged 78, succumbed to advanced Parkinson’s disease at The Normandy in Rocky River, OH on Friday, March 19, 2010. He was the son of Kitty Collins and Ruel Otis Redinger, and was born in Washington, PA on August 13, 1932. Tom was the third of four children: Patricia Redinger Lee, Ruel O. Jr, and younger brother James. The family moved to Bay Village, OH in 1941 when Tom was nine years old and remained there until the late 1990s.

Following in his father’s, mother’s (his maternal grandfather had been a bare-fisted prizefighter at the turn of the century) and older brother’s footsteps, Tom loved and lived sports. He lettered at Bay High School in football, basketball and track. He was a life guard at Huntington Beach during the summers. He won a full sports scholarship to Purdue University and played varsity football as a halfback and offensive end from 1951 through 1953. His teammate Bernie Flowers remembered Tom scoring the touchdown during the 1952 Purdue-Illinois game, the first Purdue game ever televised, which started Purdue’s scoring momentum for the remainder of the game. Tom remarked to his teammate that his grandfather, Ruel Otis Redinger, an all American at Colgate, had played at this same stadium.

After his graduation from Perdue, Tom joined the USAF and flew jets for the Strategic Air Command from 1954 to 1958. He married Jane Anne Irwin on October 15, 1956 and they had three children: Deborah Ann, Teresa Jane and Thomas B. Jr.

Leaving the Air Force, the family settled in Rocky River, OH. Tom coached extra-curricular football for 5^th and 6^th, and 7^th and 8^th graders. He entered the investment field, working for William J. Mericka, J. N. Russell and others. When he formed his own investment advisor company, TBR Associates, his lifelong devotion to sports led him to include many clients involved in professional sports, and he aided in the development of tennis and other sports resort complexes. With a number of partners, he invested in the Bay Point property (opposite Cedar Point, OH), a peninsula jutting into Sandusky Bay near Marblehead, OH. The partners developed Bay Point into a thriving marina and condominium resort.

Sadly Tom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1974 at the age of 42. His superb physical condition probably helped to slow the progression of the disease for the remaining 36 years of his life, but he gradually lost his ability to continue his normal physical activities and his professional career was cut short. His beloved wife Jane and his three loving children cared for him. His many devoted and generous friends remained close and supportive throughout his illness.

Tom was distinguished by a kind and gentle disposition. He was especially fond of young people, and his eyes lit up when his children and grandchildren were near. He found humor in most things, and lived a satisfying and full life despite his physical limitations brought on by Parkinson’s. He was loved by all who knew them in full measure. He made the world a better place and he will be sorely missed.

He is survived by his wife Jane and children Deborrah Kompanik (Gary) of Abu Dhabi, Therese of Boston, MA and Tom Jr. (Cynthia) of Gloucester, MA. He was the loving grandfather of Lindsey, Elizabeth and Matthew Kompanik and Thomas B. Redinger III "Tucker".